Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-06-19
A "REMINISCENCES or EMERSON.
Personal Impressions Of Friend of the
nlustrious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

Personal Impressions Of Friend of the
nlustrious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The subject Of discussion at the meet.
ing Of the Starr King Fraternity was
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the principal
attraction was paper by C. J. Wood.
bury, Of Oakland, who was an acquaint-
ance and friend of the illustrious philoso-
pher. After giving his personal impress
sions at some length, the speaker consid-
cred the nature of Emerson's influence.
He said:
81 answer without hesitation, to me he
was simply stimulator, awakener. II Is
my conviction that, like Pascal and
Gurnall and Rousseau and Herder and
Lessing and Carlyle, he will always be
read by the young rather than the old,
forcing his way, not by reasoning and
syllogisms, but by feeling, imagination
and intuition, and so driving one to new
and strange attitudes of thought and
action. Sometimes, l think, this was the
most common il not the only way in
which he looked upon himself. Ger.
tainly, am not prepared to say it was in
joke that he said Of himself: DO moi
count on me as standing anywhere, un-
settle everything This l do know,
wouldn't let him look even into cup OF
coffee for which had any respect; for to
me he was born iconoclast. He brought
the whole existing order with which
had been familiar into doubt. He taught
me to have no respect for the old simply
because it was old. And to me ever after
meeting him the old became far too often
the obsolete. Nothing that is, came to
learn, is entitled to respect simply because
it is. He smote me thus as in the fore
head at our very first interview. The oc-
casion was the return of an article ! had
brought him with his suggestions in
pencil on the margin. He fell to it and
gave me lecture on composition which
was clear departure from everything
the professor of rhetoric had been teach
ing us for two years.
You shall have no firstly or secondly
or thirdly. he said. You shall make nc
skeleton or plan. You shall have nc
peroration or exordium. What is it you
are writing for, anyway? What do you
want to say? Say it! Out with it! Don't
lead up to it. Don't try to let your
hearer down from it. That is to be COM
monplace. Say it with all the force and
grace you can and stop.
81 see you write verses sometimes.
suppose you read your verses over after
you have written them?
Certainly
81 suppose, then, after a little they
grow old to your
"'Indeed they do
"'And you continue to write. II. aftel
long time, you look any Of your line.
over, and you come TO one or a success
sion and say to yourself, ''That is good, y
1t is good, no matter what any one says
to the contrary, but destroy without de.
lay everything else. Poetry, whether Il
comes in dreams or In CLEANS, is always
noble and holy. It must serve no sordid
use. 1t is of the above. You must keep
some fact books for poetry. think that
they are much more nearly related to
poetry than rhyme or rhythm. Study
Greek for expression. but the poetic fact
is half the battle. For your fact books
gather and search everything, but you
shall not read Prescott or Bancroft OF
Motley or Montaigne. Prescott is q
thorough man. Bancroft reads enor.
mously; always understands his subject.
Motley was painstaking and practical,
but their style Stays. Neither Of them
lifts himself OF his feet. They have nc
Lit in them
~ think now, without betraying pub.
fishers confidence, can venture to give
you few Of Mr.. Emerson's expressions
to me which are in the line Of the direct
purpose of these memories. They art
Just as fresh as when they were uttered
over half a generation ago, although they
like everything he said, are more easily
understood when read than when listenec
to.
"'Shut your book when your owl
thought comes. II is of more value thar
that of the angel Gabriel
There Is no strong performance
without little fanaticism on the part OF
the performer. When you meet son OF
Kentucky his very presence seems to say:
If you like me, well; il you don't, look
out for yourself.
"'I commiserate any one who is sub.
ject to the misery Of being overplaced.
What you are stands'over you and thun.
ders and denies what you say
"'Did you ever think about the logic
of brain stimulus? Nature supplies her
own. 1t is astonishing what she will dc
if you will give her a chance. Even the
most tired brain will get relief under the
apple tree on the grass. Later in life O
cup of tea perhaps, but tobacco-whai
rude crowbar is this with which to pry
into the delicate tissues of the brain?
sin study do not stop until you en-.
counter the fact with your own hand
Search by all shows and learn just how
1t now stands. Though the reward Of
the market is in the thing done, the true
reward is in the doing. Oakland (Cal.,
Enquirer.